Homeless Gamers

So for the past few days we have been pirating in lowsec, and its really starting to become apparent that folks just have no idea whats going on, or that *gasp* people might actually be out there to do them harm.

So, I figured I’d throw up a few basic pointers on how not to become one of my victims in low sec.

1. Scout – never go through a lowsec gate that you havent got eyes on the otherside. There are a lot of unsavory types who will sit on the otherside just waiting for a poor bastard like you to jump through and give them some free isk. Shuttles work great for this as they are practically free even for a newbie, and worst case scenario you lose the shuttle.
2. Use the damn Scanner – The scanner isnt there for decoration, it has a use, and its main use is saving your ass. Simply open it up, click directional, hold 9 in the little distance box till it screams at you, make sure its on 360 and click scan…once every 30 – 60 seconds. If you see “Combat Scanner Probes” leave immediately. Dont wait, dont finish that mob, dont finish looting, leave. Odds are someone like myself has you down to a few AU’s and is licking his chops waiting to give you a free ride back to the station.
3. Stay Aligned – if you insist on mining in lowsec and you actually want to somehow make a profit doing it, then stay aligned at all times. Get into your belt, locate the roids you want to harvest. approach them (while using method #2), and once in range find a celestial object (Gate, Station, planet, etc), right click said object and click align to. Wait for your ship to turn in that direction, then simply hit ctrl space. Your ship is now aimed towards this object and ready to run like hell should you see something on scan.
4. Avoid systems touching highsec – most people think systems touching highsec are the best systems cause you can run quickly if need be. When in reality these are usually the systems with the highest traffic. Missions are frequently assigned to these types of systems and pirates are drawn to the activity. Its better to be in a nice quiet empty system a few jumps from highsec where no one is going to bother you, than it is to be one jump from highsec with 20 pirates in local waiting for you to make a mistake.
5. Check the system statistics – before you go anywhere make sure that you use the map in eve to check the statistics. How many ships and pods have been destroyed there recently, how much traffic, how many jumps, etc. All of these will let you know if you have a nice quiet paradise or a pirate heaven.
6. Safespots – notice this is plural not singular. Obviously one safe spot is better than none, but one isnt going to save your ass for long. However, if you have 4 on different sides of the system, and continuously warp to them over and over… you will drive most covops pilots insane. Make sure they arent right next to each other, and any scanner is going to lose you over and over.
7. Cloaks – if you really are interested in living in lowsec, but not fighting the locals think about training cloaks. Cloaking gets you off scanners and probes in essence making you invisible. Warp to a safe, cloak, go afk for 45 minutes and most pirates are going to get pissed off and leave.

Pirates like action, free isk, and stupid pilots. If you use the above tactics you are “Less likely” to die and make things more difficult for folks like me.